The Daily Startup: GGV Capital Closes $1.2 Billion for New Funds

GGV Capital is the latest venture firm to add dry powder to the keg. Menlo Park, Calif.- and Shanghai-rooted GGV has made a final close on $1.2 billion for two main investment vehicles. GGV’s new funds tap into $900 million for its main GGV Capital VI fund and $250 million for its seed-stage-focused GGV Discover I. The firm has also set up a $50 million sidecar in the GGV Capital VI Entrepreneurs Fund, including company founders as LPs. The fundraising by GGV, which now manages $3.8 billion in eight funds, comes as venture firms have been raising funds at the highest rate since the peak of the dot-com boom, in 2000.

ALSO IN TODAY’S VENTUREWIRE (subscription required):

NodeSource Inc. has raised a $10 million Series A round to keep enhancing the programming language JavaScript, letting it also connect to back-end databases so that applications containing JavaScript can run “effectively everywhere.”

EdCast Inc. has raised $16 million to help businesses maintain their competitive advantages by keeping their employees up to speed with the latest industry news.

GREE VR Capital LLC, a new venture capital arm of Japanese mobile gaming company GREE Inc., has raised $12 million for a fund dedicated to virtual-reality software.

After funding several successful European and U.S. life sciences companies, Forbion Capital Partnershas raised 183 million euros ($208 million) for a third fund that attracted financial and strategic investors.

(VentureWire is a daily newsletter with comprehensive analysis of all the investments, deals and personnel moves involving startups and their venture backers. For a two-week trial, visit http://on.wsj.com/DJPEVCNews, scroll to the bottom and click “try for free.”)

ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WEB:

Alibaba to Invest $1 Billion in E-Commerce Startup Lazada. Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding, in its biggest overseas acquisition to date, said Tuesday it would pay about $1 billion for a controlling stake in Singapore e-commerce startup Lazada Group, betting on growth in populous Southeast Asia.

Tim Draper Puts Celebrity to Test With $190M Seed Fund. Tim Draper is putting his celebrity to work as a venture investor. The billionaire investor, who starred in the reality TV show Startup U and tried to make Silicon Valley its own state, has raised $190 million for a seed fund. His Draper Associates fund, previously a personal investment vehicle, aims to be the first $1 million put into promising startups.

Bets on San Francisco Office Boom Face Risks. On the gritty edge of San Francisco’s downtown, workers in backhoes are readying the foundation for a new office building with space for at least 1,800 employees, leased in full by online-payments startup Stripe Inc.